Free Web NovelChapter 168: Chapter 167 : Prove your worth
[ Host’s request acknowledged. ]
[ Temporary SS-Rank Ascension initiated. ]
[ Calculating required cost... ]
[ Cost determined: Minimum 10 years of lifespan. ]
[ Warning: Lifespan is directly linked to the Host’s Soul Essence. ]
[ Lifespan consumption will not only reduce the Host’s remaining years of life, but will also weaken the Host’s soul foundation. ]
[ Effects of Lifespan Consumption: ]
[ • Remaining lifespan reduced. ]
[ • Soul Essence weakened. ]
[ • Resistance to spiritual and soul-based attacks decreased. ]
[ • Future evolutions and breakthroughs will become more difficult. ]
[ • Repeated usage may cause permanent soul degradation. ]
[ Warning: Soul damage caused by lifespan consumption is extremely difficult to restore. ]
[ Warning: Excessive lifespan consumption may result in irreversible damage to the Host’s existence. ]
[ Do you wish to proceed? ]
Arthur didn’t hesitate.
’Yes,’ he answered in his mind.
[ Confirmation received. ]
[ Consuming 10 years of lifespan... ]
[ Lifespan successfully deducted. ]
A sharp pain shot through Arthur’s chest.
It was not physical pain.
It felt as though someone had reached into his soul and torn off a piece with their bare hands. His vision flashed white. His grip on Yuna faltered.
He groaned and gently laid Yuna on the shattered ground.
Then his legs gave out.
Arthur dropped to his knees, fingers digging into the dirt as he fought to stay conscious. Every breath felt heavy, as though his lungs were filling with lead.
The mana in the area stirred.
Then it rushed toward him.
Like a reversed storm, every mote of mana within hundreds of meters was pulled in Arthur’s direction. It wrapped around him in spiraling currents, sinking into his body and reinforcing his bones, blood, and soul.
Lucas’s eyes widened.
"The bastard..." Lucas muttered. "He’s using some insane power for a forceful breakthrough..."
Jessica, Sylvia, and Adrian all stared.
"Impossible..." Sylvia whispered.
Adrian’s mouth tightened. He had seen geniuses force breakthroughs before, but never with this kind of devouring pull—never while radiating such cold, deliberate intent.
Up in the sky, Agnus watched from the deck of a hovering warship.
A slow smile spread across his face.
"That kid is dangerous," Agnus said quietly. "And useful to us at the same time."
He studied Arthur’s bowed form, his eyes reflecting the swirling mana.
"That ruthless nature... those eyes that don’t show an ounce of fear even in the face of absolute authority, even when surrounded by death..." Agnus went on. "He definitely takes after his grandmother."
His gaze drifted to the distant horizon.
"Of all the children, it just had to be him," Agnus murmured. "Too bad, Veronica. Looks like you’ll never meet him after all."
Boom.
The air around Arthur detonated in a shockwave.
Dust and loose rubble blasted away from him in a ring. The warships overhead creaked as the pressure spiked for an instant before stabilizing.
When the dust settled, Arthur slowly rose to his feet.
He looked different.
His red eyes no longer held only anger and resolve—they burned with predatory intensity, like the gaze of a beast at the top of the food chain. Darkness coiled around him in thin strands, wrapping around his arms and shoulders, shifting like living smoke.
The bloodlust pouring off him made Lucas and Jessica instinctively tense.
It felt nothing like the killing intent of trained soldiers.
This was deeper, older—like standing before the door of a slaughterhouse and hearing the echoes of everything that had ever died inside.
All around them, Imperius soldiers took a step back without realizing it.
The world around Arthur suddenly became clearer.
Sharper.
Slower.
He could see the smallest shifts in posture, hear the faint clink of armor plates knocking together, and feel the tremor of heartbeats in the air. The ground beneath his feet thrummed with power. Space itself warped slightly around him, bending to the weight of his presence.
Arthur clenched his fist.
The power flowing through his body was unlike anything he had ever felt before. His muscles thrummed with strength. His senses expanded. His bloodline surged like a tidal wave, every ability humming with newfound potential.
This was SS-Rank.
[ Temporary SS-Rank Ascension Successful. ]
[ All basic attributes have increased by +2500. ]
[ Strength: +2500 ]
[ Durability: +2500 ]
[ Vitality: +2500 ]
[ Intelligence: +2500 ]
[ Agility: +2500 ]
[ Will: +2500 ]
[ All bloodline abilities have been enhanced. ]
[ Time Limit: 3 Hours ]
Arthur slowly raised his head.
His crimson eyes were like burning coals in the dusk.
He glanced at Elizabeth.
Her mouth hung open in sheer disbelief.
"Ho... how?" she whispered.
Even with her own power fully unlocked, the leap she had just sensed from Arthur terrified her.
Arthur nudged Yuna gently upward with his foot and caught her in one arm before tossing her carefully toward Elizabeth. Elizabeth reacted instantly, stepping forward and catching Yuna as though she weighed nothing.
"Take care of her," Arthur said. "I’ll take care of the rest."
Elizabeth tightened her grip on Yuna and nodded.
Arthur stepped forward.
He looked at Adrian, Jessica, Agnus, Lucas, and Sylvia standing at the forefront of the gathered Imperius forces.
"You can come all at once," Arthur said. "I won’t mind."
The System’s voice chimed in his head.
[ Don’t get too cocky, Host. You still can’t take all of them alone. ]
’Shut up,’ Arthur replied.
On the ground, Adrian’s gaze turned ice-cold.
He took half a step forward, his aura stirring again—
"Stop right there, Ed," Sylvia’s voice cut in, sharp as a whip.
Adrian halted mid-step and looked at her.
Sylvia’s eyes hardened as she stared past him at Lucas.
"It was Lucas’s plan," Sylvia said. "He’s the one who created this mess. Let him deal with it."
Her voice carried, reaching the watching officers and soldiers.
"This will clear the doubt in everyone’s mind," Sylvia went on, "as to who is the worthy heir of the family."
Agnus appeared beside Adrian in a blur of motion, his hair fluttering.
"She is absolutely right, son," Agnus said. "Let Lucas go. He will prove to the world that he was the right choice."
Adrian exhaled slowly, forcing his temper back under control.
"You’re right," Adrian said. "I lost my cool there."
He shifted his gaze to Lucas.
"Take care of your mess, Lucas," Adrian said.
Lucas clicked his tongue.
"You don’t need to tell me," Lucas replied. "I was going to take care of it anyway."
He rolled his shoulders, stepping forward as a golden aura began rising around him.
"He may have gotten a few new tricks," Lucas said, eyeing Arthur with disdain, "but he’s still nowhere near my level. I can already tell he’s on a time limit after that forceful breakthrough."
Arthur smiled slightly.
He could feel the ticking clock in the back of his mind.
Three hours.
Three hours to tear down an illusion that had been built over generations.
Lucas walked forward, golden aura rippling faintly around him, his spear resting casually on his shoulder.
"Aren’t I right, little brother?" Lucas said. "You’ve got some serious moves now."
Arthur said nothing.
They stopped a few meters apart.
For a heartbeat, neither moved. The wind stirred the dust between them. Above, warships hummed softly, soldiers watching from the decks and from the ruined ground below.
Their eyes met.
Both of them spoke a single phrase.
"Order Break," Lucas muttered.
"Nullify," Arthur said.
Lucas’s EX-Rank skill activated instantly.
A wave of invisible suppression exploded outward from him, stripping mana from the air and denying its very existence. Space within its range became dry and empty—where others would feel as though they were suffocating.
At the same time, Arthur’s command rippled outward.
Nullify.
For a split second, two opposing laws clashed.
BAM.
An explosion of pressure erupted around them, cracking the ground beneath their feet and sending a ring of dust flying. Soldiers shielded their faces, robes and cloaks snapping in the sudden gust.
Lucas felt his own skill unravel mid-cast.
His eyes widened.
’What the hell...? Did he just cancel my skill...?’
Arthur smiled faintly.
Lucas’s anger flared.
"Fine," Lucas said. "Let’s see how long that smug face lasts."
Behind Arthur, thousands of blood spears materialized in the air—dense crimson constructs radiating killing intent. They hovered for a breath before shooting toward Lucas like a rain of fanged meteors.
Lucas’s lips curled.
His talent, Origin Flux, roared to life.
Every drop of mana that formed the spears quivered before shooting toward him instead of piercing him. The spears dissolved mid-flight, their power converted into streams of energy that sank into Lucas’s body and the tip of his spear.
Arthur watched calmly.
’That guy’s talent really is something,’ Arthur thought. ’Dominion over all forms of energy...’
His eyes gleamed.
’I want it,’ he thought. ’But I’ll wait for the right time.’
A spear of pure destructive energy formed in Lucas’s hand—more condensed, more dangerous than before, fed by the power he had just absorbed. Black-gold light crawled along its shaft, the tip humming with compressed force.
Lucas blurred.
He shot toward Arthur like a golden flash, his spear aiming straight for Arthur’s heart.
Arthur didn’t move.
He had already calculated the trajectory, speed, angle, and exact point where the spear would cross the boundary.
Lucas thrust.
The spear struck something invisible in front of Arthur.
The air shimmered.
Lucas’s charge stopped dead, as though he had slammed into a wall of diamond.
Infinity.
For the first time, surprise flickered across Lucas’s face.
"What—"
Before he could finish, Arthur moved.
At SS-Rank, his body was a blur.
He grabbed Lucas by the face with one hand.
BAM.
Arthur slammed him headfirst into the ground.
The earth caved in, a crater forming beneath the force. Cracks spiderwebbed outward in all directions as dust and chunks of rock flew upward.
From the sidelines, Jessica’s pupils contracted.
’That Infinity of his... is almost impenetrable,’ Jessica thought. ’And Lucas got caught off guard that easily...’
A golden aura flared out of the crater.
Lucas burst upward, dust exploding around him. He hovered for a second, dusting blood and dirt from his face with the back of his hand.
He barely finished the motion before Arthur was in front of him again.
A flash of red.
The next second, Arthur unleashed a storm of blows.
Fifty strikes in rapid succession.
His fists and feet blurred, targeting joints, ribs, throat, and solar plexus. Mixed into the barrage were precise nerve strikes—fingers pressing and snapping into points that disrupted blood flow to Lucas’s brain and weakened the signals to his limbs.
"Kh—! Gah—!"
Bones cracked. Blood flew.
Lucas’s arms and legs began to feel heavy and unresponsive.
’Fuck—he’s not giving me time to think—’ Lucas thought, struggling to keep up.
His System responded automatically.
[ Regeneration: B-Rank activated. ]
Warmth spread through Lucas’s body as his stamina and mana were forcibly converted into healing power. Broken bones began to knit together. Torn muscles started to repair themselves. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com
Arthur didn’t care.
He just kept hitting him.
Every time something healed, Arthur broke it again.
He targeted the same ribs, the same cheekbone, and the same kneecap. Fist after fist smashed into Lucas’s face, sides, and stomach. Blood sprayed with every impact, splattering the ground, Arthur’s clothes, and the air between them.
Lucas tried to counterattack.
Every time he swung his spear, every time he tried to detonate a blast of condensed energy, his attacks slowed as they entered the sphere around Arthur and bent off course, redirected or neutralized by Infinity’s precise calculations.
To the watching soldiers, it looked as though Lucas was punching and swinging at empty water, each blow losing strength before it even got close.
To Lucas, it felt like fighting the world itself.
He healed.
Arthur broke him.
He healed.
Arthur broke him again.
On and on.
Cracks formed in the earth each time Arthur drove his fist, knee, or elbow into Lucas’s body. Teeth loosened. Vision blurred. The world became a haze of pain and frustration.
At some point, Regeneration faltered.
[ Warning: Insufficient stamina and mana for continuous regeneration. ]
The wounds stopped closing.
Lucas’s body finally began to show the accumulated damage—swollen flesh, split lips, one eye nearly shut, a nose broken in two places, blood dripping constantly from his mouth and chin.
He looked barely human.
"You son of a bitch..." Lucas snarled through a mouthful of blood. "I’ll kill you...!"
He staggered back a step, desperate to regain even a little distance.
Arthur advanced, his expression unreadable.
"Domain!" Lucas roared.
Power exploded outward from him, a surge of golden energy attempting to overwrite the surrounding space with his own rules.
Arthur’s eyes narrowed.
"Domain," he said quietly.
His own power surged in answer.
The battlefield shuddered as two domains began to unfold, reality itself warping as both brothers fought to claim the world beneath their feet.
